# SmartFile Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is SmartFile the right File Sharing solution for you? Explore 55 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/134146/SmartFile/reviews --- SmartFile 4.3 (55) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/134146/SmartFile/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of SmartFile Ease of use 4.2 Customer Service 4.2 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews VC Valerie C VPHigher Education, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The multiple access and file transfer and storage options makes it one of the most flexible options on the market.“ September 8, 2020 SK Saquib K CTOInformation Technology and Services, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The starter license does not include Branding which i beleive is pretty basic.“ September 8, 2020 FV Frank V VP of ITHospital & Health Care, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “We used the software to help us work with a customer in pinch during COVID-19.“ September 8, 2020 CC Craig C Executive DirectorMusic, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “It doesn't work as advertised and when we sought support it was not provided.“ September 8, 2020 SP Scott P ElectricianElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “I like that it allows the use of filezilla“ September 1, 2020 EB Erik B Coördinator presales consultantBusiness Supplies and Equipment, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “This is also found as not secured.“ September 15, 2020 EJ Eric J OwnerComputer Networking, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Great web interface.“ September 8, 2020 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 55 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Jesse Paul S. Regional Sales Consultant Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Quality FTP for your Business" February 1, 2019 5.0 Pros I really enjoyed almost every feature provided by SmartFile, including the easy to use interface that can be customized to emulate brand look and feel and the ability to create a hub for my clients to use. Cons The only piece that I didn't appreciate was the price. My business is fairly small so the costs can quickly add up but I know SmartFile is the best solution for my business and clients and that is whay matters most. Review Source DH David H. CEO E-Learning Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Willo Review" September 1, 2020 5.0 Pros Cost efficient, easy to deploy and use with our customers, fast Cons Mostly a few UI/UX implementations regarding managing users, groups, shares. Some small attention on this front could yield goodness. Switched from [AWS Config](https://www.capterra.com/p/205398/AWS-Config/) Cost, manageability by non-technical team members, ease of managing access with our customers, operational scalability. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Executive Entertainment Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Terrible" January 17, 2020 1.0 Pros Ease of use. Cons No customer support. No web previews. Speed is so slow - its almost unbearable in this day and age. Everything about this FTP service is just below par for the amount of money. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Web Developer / Server Administrator / SEO Education Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Review of SmartFile" January 25, 2019 5.0 The business problem that SmartFile solves is allowing lots of file storage which I use for daily backups of mission critical files. Pros First and foremost, I like the fact that this service exists. I needed a place to backup files via ftp, and there are few places that allow for using ftp and allow this much file storage. There are a lot of features offered that I was not looking for, but they sure do come in handy. It is nice to have a web based interface and to be able to quickly generate and share a link with an expiration date. Cons We have had some issues with a false message saying we reached our limit. I have been working with tech support, and they are assisting with the issue. Tech support responds quickly, and I really do appreciate that. Review Source Response from SmartFile January 28, 2019 Thank you for taking the time to give us feedback. Our engineers were made aware of this issue and are currently working on a patch to resolve the problem. We do apologize for the inconvenience and will continue to update all customers experiencing this issue with our progress. VR Verified Reviewer Director de eCommerce Architecture & Planning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An easy to use FTP file management with powerful features" February 1, 2019 5.0 Pros What I like about SmartFile is that is easy to use and provides powerful features for companies that rely on FTP as part of their business. I like how we can organize everything and specially how we can give access to clients to upload the files needed to work on their projects. The main reason we had chosen SmartFile is that we do business in China and the US and file transferring is a problem due to China's security wall. SmartFile manages this very well and it was the best service we tried uploading files from the US to download them in China. More than 5 services tried, some of them more expensive, and SmartFile was the fastest. Cons The software provides us with what we need. If could improve something, it would be the interface. It's easy to navigate but needs a revamp to make it look more up to date. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Executive Assistant Media Production Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Smartfile - A Real Solution for File Sharing" January 25, 2019 5.0 Overall, Smartfile has been an absolute gem for me and my colleagues. Uploading and downloading for both employees and client is very easy and intuitive. Pros Smartfile does exactly what I need it to do. The ability to send and receive large files in addition to sharing them in vast levels of secure measures. Cons My only gripes right now is that you cannot share files and get feedback on the files themselves. For example, if I send a video I am working on with a client, I cannot create a centralized "hub" for feedback like some competitors do. The only other capability that I wish it would have would be having desktop capabilities to upload/manage content. Review Source Dan Z. Chief Technology Officer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Simple option for hosted FTP, FTPS, SFTP" January 25, 2019 5.0 Pros Reasonably priced, easy to use and supports multiple protocols -thus giving us very good ROI by not having to support multiple FTP infrastructures. Cons Nothing really. So far it has worked great for us. Review Source Jon Q. IT Manager Construction Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "SmartFile - Good Value" January 25, 2019 4.0 Overall the service works good, Support is good. Pros Unlimited storage / Unlimited users for the one price Cons System is slow. Updates sometimes break features and have to wait until next update to get fixed. Review Source Matt S. Co-Founder/Vice President Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great system...but somtimes slow." February 1, 2019 4.0 Not many complaints here. It's a good system and works with our liasons in China, which was the main purpose of using it over something like Dropbox. Pros I like that there's a desktop component as well as a web interface so I can use it almost anywhere. Cons It's a little slow to access files on desktop and prohibitively slow to upload files on the desktop. I typically use the web interface to upload docs so that it goes faster. Review Source Steven D. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Good value. Works well with automated process." January 25, 2019 5.0 An automated process transfers large digital assets to and from the password-protected SmartFile space. The assets need to be unreachable by visitors to websites but easily within reach of authorized users. The SmartFile arrangement is working very well and this is now one less thing to worry about. Pros Good value. Everything seems to work well. Very little interaction required with the company. Cons Nothing we don't like. Except that I am required to enter 40 characters into this field when I have answered the question using only 22. Review Source MA Max A. Director of Interactive Media Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "8 years of use" January 25, 2019 4.0 Almost flawless Pros \- Wide variety of services and functions - Wide variety of connexion type - Almost no downtime - Automations - Good support Cons \- Price can be lower (depend on the services you really need) - Access to Custom Branding only for higher price plan Review Source WB William B. Network Administrator Education Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Easy to Use" September 14, 2020 4.0 Overall I like the service, would like better/more automation tools. Pros The upload process is very easy. Drag my file to the window, and click upload. Cons The automation of our file upload to the site is hit or miss. Review Source KK Katie K. CMO Internet Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Ease of Use" February 1, 2019 5.0 Pros I needed this to seamlessly integrate some files via an FTP. Smartfile did the job. Cons I can't think of an issues I have had or anything that I don't like, really. Review Source GD Gennifer D. Financial Coordinator Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Extremely helpful" February 1, 2019 5.0 Pros It's easy to use, and makes collaborating very simple. Cons I don't have anything to say about this that I don't like. Review Source MM Mike M. Systems Administrator Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "My Review of SmartFile" September 14, 2020 4.0 It's been a positive experience. We moved from our own self-hosted SFTP server over to SmartFile. It's paid for itself in the first month of usage. Pros 1\. Ease of use 2. Inexpensive. 3. Built-in automation rules Cons I would like to see an auditing and logging feature made available. The ability to share user home folders with administrator account to track usage through managed accounts. Review Source AH Andre H. Biz Developer Consumer Goods Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good for sending large files to China" January 28, 2019 5.0 We are sharing large AI-files that are too big for e-mail sending with suppliers in China. Without this service we couldn't have shared these files in an easy way. Pros One of the few file sharing services that our Chinese suppliers can access in China. Cons The UI is a little bit difficult to understand sometimes. For example if you share a top folder you don't automatically share content in sub-folders. Review Source Response from SmartFile January 29, 2019 Andre- Thanks for your feedback regarding our sharing options. I will share this information with our engineers to determine an easier solution to share files. AA Attly A. President Medical Devices Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Smart, Simple FTP" February 5, 2019 5.0 SmartFile has been an easy tool to use and does a great job at delivering as advertised. Pros The software is easy to setup and gets going. User management is a breeze. Cons No real issues with the software. It meets my expectations. Review Source FL Feng L. CIO Translation and Localization Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Genuine FTP Service that is Fairly Easy to Use" February 6, 2019 4.0 Pros Complete FTP and SFTP features Relatively Secured Conveniently available Cons Not so easy to use for general users Administrator should have more system-wide access rights Review Source MW Mike W. Dev Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great concept, confusing features" January 25, 2019 4.0 Once a client is set up, it's easy for them to upload files securely for us. Pros Easy to view files and navigate the web interface. Cons Confusing to set up users/groups and grant permissions. Review Source ZW Zach W. CTO, CCO Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Overall really good but room for improvement" January 25, 2019 4.0 Pros This is a great out of the box solution. It was fairly easy to set up. Nothing difficult to administer. Overall, this is exactly what we needed and I'm very glad we use SmartFile. Cons There are so many little things that are easy fixes that would make the experience much more pleasant. I don't have a problem uploading files (i use it nearly every day) but a lot of the people on our team that use SmartFile struggle with certain things. Little things like having to click upload and then dragging and dropping in the the drop zone (that doesn't highlight when you drag a file over it) and then submit. People understand a file system. I would suggest imitating more of the features of a file system, at least for drag and drop. Sorting files takes several steps. It would be nice it this was faster. Uploading and downloading can be painfully slow at times. And no, its not our internet. Its you. We have a dedicated 1Gb download and upload line. Uploading and downloading from other servers are consistently faster. We upload to S3 every day and its always ten times faster. When we are transferring small files this isn't an issue. When we transfer a huge files. It becomes an issue. I really like the activities feed. Its very helpful for reviewing activity on our account. The activity feed works great some times but fails to load at other time or is incredibly slow. Make this just work. Along the same lines, the notifications are extremely helpful but delayed too long. I have a lot of team members who ask me to switch to dropbox. They have various reasons, not all legitimate, but some are. Look at their UI. Look at what they are doing. Its really easy to use. Review Source MW Mark W. Client Services Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "TBD" January 26, 2019 4.0 TBD, building a business process and the single coupling to Okta has made us rethink our approach but in a way it’s a good thing because we’ve decoupled storage from user context. Pros The offering provides a very polished interface and the ability to set your own branding are very well implemented in SmartFile. Cons SSO provider support is limited solely to Okta which, while one of the larger providers in the space this sole point of support suggests that support and integration are generally intended to focus support, integration, and their business offering to Fortune 500 organizations. Review Source Response from SmartFile January 28, 2019 Mark - Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback, and I agree that our SSO options are limited. This limitation is due to SmartFile having one of the largest FTP user bases in the world. Over 75% of our user activities are FTP, and our user permissions are built to support this. Most SSO providers (ie. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn) only support an email as a username and therefore does not permit a non-email login. In order to offer more SSO providers, we would have to require users to use a SSO login for the web interface and a separate login for FTP. We felt having multiple login methods would cause a high rate of confusion to our user base and chose not to move forward with additional SSO providers. Also, you're correct in your assumption regarding enterprises. To meet our enterprise customers security requirements we did integrate with Okta and we just rolled SSO using Azure. Thanks again for your feedback and comments. ES Evan S. Vessel IT Team Lead Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great unlimited sharing platform. FTP and webdav support are a huge plus!" August 26, 2019 5.0 Pros Ease of use and setup of shares and links. accessibility for users. Cons When issues do arise, we have had lackluster support in some cases. we have had this product for over 5 years. Alternatives considered [Files.com](https://www.capterra.com/p/169203/Files/)[ExaVault Cloud FTP](https://www.capterra.com/p/175245/ExaVault/)[Progress ShareFile](https://www.capterra.com/p/10007380/ShareFile/) Reason for choosing SmartFile Cost and features. Review Source AU Arturo U. IT MANAGER Animation Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Perfect if you are not setting up your own FTP Server" February 1, 2019 5.0 Our experience with SmartFile has been a positive one. We use it to transport files to and from our sister studios in China and we find that this is one of the only FTP servers that makes it to China. Pros My colleges and I love that we can access our files via the web anytime. Cons The web portal times out on long downloads and we do get partial downloads that way, smaller files are fine to be accessed that way but when moving project files over 11gigs, we have to use FileZilla or any other FTP clients since those can be set up to continue an upload/download without having to start all over again. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer President Banking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Secure file portal" February 5, 2019 5.0 This solution was perfect for our needs. We used this almost like an extranet and way for sharing sensitive documents with customers. Customers and business able to drag and drop files into a familiar explorer window and share files with ease, while still being secure, Pros On premise solution that we used to secure file transfer and storage of customer data. Cons The cost seemed a bit high, but you do get what you pay for! Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Systems Administrator Wholesale Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great service" February 5, 2019 5.0 We use SmartFile to move large image files and CAD files. Pros SmartFile helps us achieve the necessary connections with our overseas vendors and our domestic customers. Some services similar to SmartFile could not reliably connect to in some countries, such as China. Cons I would like to see a better API that is also better documented. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.